The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was founded by Daniel Barenboim and the late Edward Said. It consists of young, highly talented Israeli and Arabian musicians and was founded to increase the dialogue between young people in the Middle East and represent the peaceful collaboration of the two cultures. In standard comparable to the most established orchestras, it combines tonal beauty and transparency with youthful expressiveness, passion and exuberance. This technically brilliant and incredibly enthusiastic orchestra brings out all levels of Beethoven’s 9th symphony and we listen to Beethoven at his very best: exuberant, emotional, lucid, tender, clear, triumphant… simply magnificent!Needless to say, Daniel Barenboim conducts excellently and outstanding singers Angela Denoke, Waltraud Meier, Burkhard Fritz and René Pape contribute tremendously to this unforgettable concert.
The work we cherish as Fidelio was Beethoven’s final rewrite, after an eight-year gap, of an opera he’d first composed in 1805 and revised the following year. The two first attempts, collectively known as Leonore, are hugely instructive glimpses into Beethoven’s workshop. The 1806 version has generally been ignored in favour of occasional performances of the 1805 score, as notably recorded in 1997 by John Eliot Gardiner. This premiere recording of the 1806 version is therefore of exceptional interest. Gardiner patched in with some later material, but this version is complete in itself and benefits from researches in the Beethoven Archive in Bonn…
The Karajan Official Remastered Edition comprises 13 box sets containing official remasterings of the finest recordings the Austrian conductor made for EMI between 1946 and 1984, which are now a jewel of the Warner Classics catalog. This 6-CD box presents Karajan's first recording of the complete Beethoven Symphonies, made in the early 1950s with London's recently-founded Philharmonia Orchestra. The recording of the 9th Symphony is available here in stereo for the very first time, taken from original unreleased tapes.
After their acclaimed recording of Weber’s Freischütz, the Dresdner Philharmonie and conductor Marek Janowski present yet another German opera classic with Beethoven’s Fidelio. They work together with a stellar cast, including Lise Davidsen (Fidelio/Leonore), Christian Elsner (Florestan), Georg Zeppenfeld (Rocco), Christina Landshamer (Marzelline), and more. This should have been a live concert recording, but recent shutdowns frustrated those plans. Luckily, it turned out possible to record Beethoven’s masterpiece in two studio sessions, with two different, established choirs: the Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden, as well as the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir.
The memorial project commemorating the 70th anniversary of Furtwängler's death is an unprecedented 80-disc collection of the first and last live recordings.
It has been 70 years since Wilhelm Furtwängler (January 25, 1886 - November 30, 1954) passed away, but his influence extends even to modern conductors, and even now, no one can surpass him. This 80CD collection includes valuable masterpieces from the following six labels that have been passionate about reproducing masterpieces by great masters.
Tahra was founded in 1993 by Myriam, the daughter of great conductor Herman Scherchen, who was also close friends with Furtwängler, and Rene Tremine, a leading figure in the French Furtwängler Association, and has now ceased operations..
The incidental music to König Stephan, Op. 117, must be among Beethoven's least often performed works, with only the overture making regular appearances on concert programs. The music was written for a play marking the opening of a theater in what is now Budapest; it was a festive event that drew from Beethoven no profound response. However, aficionados of the transition to Beethoven's late style will be glad to have this recording, one of just a few available. Compared with, say, the incidental music to Egmont, Op. 84, the music is striking in its simplicity, and there are a few hints, notably in the first part of the "Geistlicher Marsch," of the mystical musical language to come.